Weird almost crusty looking scales on firemouth?

[SAChichlidLover]

Hey everyone,
Today I picked up two firemouth cichlids and while I was adding them into my tank I noticed a really strange look on one of them? Is this normal for some? I have experience with firemouths and have never seen this in my life.. Compared to the other FM this started worrying me

 

[Sgooosh]

cannot see clearly, maybe its male vs female???

 

[Colin_T]

probably stress colours

 

[SAChichlidLover]

cannot see clearly, maybe its male vs female???

Sorry about the photo quality haha, It's still got the same scales so I'm confused but they're so hard to take pictures of at the moment thank you for you're reply

 

[SAChichlidLover]

probably stress colours

I really hope so

 

[SAChichlidLover]

Update: I actually believe the firemouth has no pigmentation as it’s full of personality and has some pretty unique colours in the first, I actually have never heard of an “albino” firemouth before but I actually really like it, they are both full of personality and really fit in well so i’m so glad that I bought them

 

[SAChichlidLover]

*in the first day haha

 

[Wills]

Its not an albino (though you do get them) This fish just looks super stressed! Id maybe leave the lights off for a few days and make sure they have plenty of space to hide.

 

[SAChichlidLover]

Its not an albino (though you do get them) This fish just looks super stressed! Id maybe leave the lights off for a few days and make sure they have plenty of space to hide.

Thank you for the advice again!! Do you think it will make it if I do this? The other one has found his place in the hierachy of the tank and seems to be doing really well, I really hope it will be okay

 

[Wills]

They should settle down but will be wide open to disease and parasites if anything came from the shop.

Longer term I'm not a massive fan of mixing south and central americans. It can work but more often than not you might not get deaths but nips and chasing could become common. Souths are much better at defining territories where as centrals seem to fight and chase where ever. They also have different water requirements hard vs soft but both do ok in neutral.

What happened for your plans for a Blue Acara?

Wills

 

[SAChichlidLover]

They should settle down but will be wide open to disease and parasites if anything came from the shop.

Longer term I'm not a massive fan of mixing south and central americans. It can work but more often than not you might not get deaths but nips and chasing could become common. Souths are much better at defining territories where as centrals seem to fight and chase where ever. They also have different water requirements hard vs soft but both do ok in neutral.

What happened for your plans for a Blue Acara?

Wills

I will be truthful and impulsively bought the firemouths as I went to the shop to get some plants and I ended up grabbing them aswell, Hopefully they didn't have any diseases and luckily my PH at the moment is on 7 with low nitrates and a moderate hardness, hopefully this would be okay for the time being and I'll keep an eye out for any diseases
I wanted to put a group of blue acaras into a new tank which I have been saving up for as I wanted to move my community fish into a bigger tank anyway and with the new tank being in the same room as my american cichlid tank it makes water changes alot easier than having to run with buckets up and down the stairs hahaha.
I hope I can nurse the firemouth back to health and keep everyone happy in the tank (even though I may have been a bit silly to do an impulse on central american firemouths haha)

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I will be truthful and impulsively bought the firemouths as I went to the shop to get some plants and I ended up grabbing them aswell, Hopefully they didn't have any diseases and luckily my PH at the moment is on 7 with low nitrates and a moderate hardness, hopefully this would be okay for the time being and I'll keep an eye out for any diseases
I wanted to put a group of blue acaras into a new tank which I have been saving up for as I wanted to move my community fish into a bigger tank anyway and with the new tank being in the same room as my american cichlid tank it makes water changes alot easier than having to run with buckets up and down the stairs hahaha.
I hope I can nurse the firemouth back to health and keep everyone happy in the tank (even though I may have been a bit silly to do an impulse on central american firemouths haha)

Just to mention that my community fish are mainly south american too with a few exceptions (god I am awful with impulse buys I really should let someone do my fish shopping)

 

[Colin_T]

You need a picture on the back of the tank to make them feel more secure. And you need some floating plants and more ornaments (plants, wood, etc) to give them somewhere to hide.

Fish look better when they have a darker substrate.

If the fish still looks the same in a week, post more pictures. It could have a microsporidian infection. However, I thinks it's mostly stress colouration.

 

[SAChichlidLover]

You need a picture on the back of the tank to make them feel more secure. And you need some floating plants and more ornaments (plants, wood, etc) to give them somewhere to hide.

Fish look better when they have a darker substrate.

If the fish still looks the same in a week, post more pictures. It could have a microsporidian infection. However, I thinks it's mostly stress colouration.

I'll try and get a nice plant filled looking picture for the back, I wanted to fill the tank with dense amazon swords hence why there is a large amount of plant fertilised substrate around the middle of the tank but I've not managed to find any and I'm debating whether to trust online plant orders but at this rate I'll have too, Will amazon frogbit do for a floating plant? Its just I know they are more of a pond plant and can grow huge but I can get more easy access to it.

 

[Wills]

I'll try and get a nice plant filled looking picture for the back, I wanted to fill the tank with dense amazon swords hence why there is a large amount of plant fertilised substrate around the middle of the tank but I've not managed to find any and I'm debating whether to trust online plant orders but at this rate I'll have too, Will amazon frogbit do for a floating plant? Its just I know they are more of a pond plant and can grow huge but I can get more easy access to it.

I'd do a plain black background really makes cichlids pop. If you want plants from online ther are some really good stores out there. I've been really happy with Scaped Nature and Pro Shrimp in particular while I've been ordering online. Infact I'd choose to go online rather than instore as stores dont really take great care (unless dedicated aquascaping stores) and you get better choice online. Have you seen the ADA Amano tank they did recently with just swords looked really good.

Frogbit would be a good choice robust plant that the cichlids wont destry lol.

Wills